Paleo Week and Spaghetti with Spicy Meatballs

It’s Paleo Week at Gluten-Free Cat! This is probably the last thing you expected to find here. But while most of my recipes for the past year have been raw, vegan, or vegetarian, the Husband has been eating Paleo. Plus, I’ve found that my body has been asking for animal protein. I love the idea of being raw vegan, but I’m finding that my energy level and my physical performance is so much better when I incorporate some meat in my diet.

So I thought that I’d share some of the gluten-free, paleo recipes that we’ve been enjoying. Plus, I’ll be ending the week with a Paleo Giveaway. Make sure you stop back on Friday!

How does a non-meat eater begin cooking with meat? She goes back to childhood with good ol’ spaghetti and meatballs.

These meatballs are made from bison and the noodles are actually spiralized zucchini. I believe that this is the way a Paleo Guy and a Raw Foods-Loving Girl can eat together happily.

I love raw zucchini, so these noodles are not warm. But served room temperature with piping hot meatballs drenched in tomato sauce, you won’t even notice that the zucchini isn’t hot.

In fact, I even enjoy the crunch of the zucchini noodles with hot marinara sans meatballs. Delicious.

A spiralizer isn’t required to make raw noodles, but it makes the job so much easier and it’s loads of fun! You can use a vegetable peeler to create fetuccini-like noodles as well.

2. In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, eggs, diced onion, minced garlic, and oregano. Then add the bison and mix by hand until well combined. Form into 10-12 meatballs and place them in a 9×13 casserole dish.

3. Heat all sauce ingredients in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Then pour the sauce over the meatballs.

4. Cover the casserole dish with foil and bake for about 45 minutes.

5. While the meatballs are cooking, spiralize two zucchini. If you don’t have a spiralizer, use a vegetable peeler to create fetuccini-like noodles.

6. Serve meatballs over zucchini noodles and top with additional tomato sauce.

Yields 10-12 meatballs

Enjoy! And don’t forget to stop by on Friday for the Paleo Week Giveaway! (Hint, it’s a cookbook!)

While I like a good vegetarian meal, I too need meat in my diet…my fave meal from when I was a kid is…spaghetti & meatballs! Mom used to make little tiny ones…I like the look of yours much better! I think I would like GF spaghetti mixed in with the spiralized zucchini…awesome yumminess!
Bison doesn’t taste very different & it’s much leaner too.
Thanks so much for the great recipes/ideas Heather…and hi Shirley! -Lynne.

Fun recipe Heather. I love zucchini noodles too. We don’t have a spiralizer but we use our mandoline set on the julienne setting to make great spaghetti type noodles. Sometimes I sautee the zucchini quickly (like 30 seconds to a minute at most) just to get them warm. I look forward to trying out those bison meatballs!

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A Curious Girl in the Gluten-Free World

I'm a curious girl, wife, teacher, friend, fitness fanatic, foodie, high raw vegan, child of the King, and Mama Cat. I've made the transition from baking and cooking gluten-free to creating raw vegan recipes that are naturally gluten free. My gluten intolerance opened up my diet to a whole new world of nutritious plant-based foods. And now I have another challenge ahead...I'm moving to New York City! I look forward to Living Raw Vegan in the City and sharing my experience with you.